How to Create the Perfect Series Night - 7 Ingenious Tips

Get together and look forward to the next episode of an exciting series and enjoy witty sayings and iconic series characters is simply fun. With our tips, you can turn a series night into a really cool event that everyone will love.

1. What Do You Need for a Perfect Series Night?

Of course you need the right series first. It’s best to start your search with the genre first. What kind of series are you most in the mood for and what do your friends/guests or partner like best? In the last few years, a lot of great series from America and Europe have come onto the market, so there’s something for everyone!

We usually start by thinking about whether we want something funny, dramatic or exciting. Then we decide on a genre like crime, comedy, fantasy or action. We have compiled a small list of series tips here that we think are great.

2. Some of the Best Series Ever

1. Fantasy: Game of Thrones, True Blood, Pushing Daisies, Stranger Things
2. Zombies: Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, iZombie
3. Mafia / Gangs: Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Gomorrha, Im Angesicht des Verbrechens, Peaky Blinders
4. Mystery: Twin Peaks, Geister / The Kingdom, Les Revenants / The Returned, LOST, Carnivàle
5. Crime / Krimi: Sherlock, Dexter, Tatort, True Detective, Fargo, The Wire, Luther
6. Drama: Breaking Bad, Homeland, House of Cards, Sons of Anarchy
7. Comedy: Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Simpsons, Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Stromberg, Tatortreiniger
8. Dramedy: Weeds, Shameless, Californication, Desperate Housewifes
9. Anwalts-Dramedy: Suits, Better Call Saul, Damages
10. Action / Superhelden: Marvel’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Misfits, Gotham, Arrow, The Flash

On Abenteuer Freundschaft you’ll find many more tips for a great series night: take a look at our recommendations for the best thriller series 2016, the best comedy series 2017 or the best British series.

3. Where to Get the Best Series for Free and Legally?

You can get almost all series for free for your evening. All you have to do is reserve or pre-book the series you want on the website of your city library in good time. But the series night was a spontaneous decision? That’s not a bad thing! Every library has a wide range of different series – it’s best to just drop in spontaneously and not settle on one series from the start to avoid disappointment.

But if you are a total series junkie and want to see the latest seasons immediately, then a membership at an online video store like Amazon Prime* is worthwhile for you. If you’re a member, many older series or previous seasons are free to watch in great quality, and you can watch the latest episodes straight away for very little money: once you’ve paid for an episode, you can watch it as often as you like without paying extra.

Despite this, I actually still buy some series from the shop. If I really like the first season, I’m usually also interested in the bonus material and I just want to own my favourites. Since many of my friends feel the same way, we sometimes organise swap nights – with today’s variety of series, there are always some new discoveries, without which my life would be much poorer 😉.

4. Basics You Should Not Forget

A series night without finger food is like going to the cinema without popcorn: quite possible, but something is missing for the perfect feeling! That’s why you should definitely remember to get snacks like crisps and salt sticks, or if you want to delight your friends with something homemade and have the time, prepare a plate with skewers. For example, with cheese and grapes or small tomatoes.

Also provide drinks so that you don’t have to jump up and get thirst quenchers for your guests during the show. Of course, you can also agree with your friends in advance what they should contribute to your evening.

Your evening will be especially original if you provide snacks and drinks that go particularly well with the series. For example, the mystery series Twin Peaks has developed a real culinary cult among series fans: like Dale Cooper, the charismatic FBI agent and his sheriffs, real fans drink coffee and eat donuts and cherry pie while watching the series. I’m sure your friends will be thrilled when you add an original touch to your evening. Have you thought of everything?

• Crisps, pretzel sticks, peanuts or NicNacs
• Gummi bears
• Biscuits
• Soda water and sparkling water, a few juices
• Goes great: pizza rolls, pizza, foccacia
• At the weekend: a six-pack of beer can’t hurt – or even better, drinks that match the series, e.g. Bloody Mary to True Blood 😉

5. Nice to Have*

If you have several locations available for your series night, then it is worth considering the technical conditions. A large screen and a good sound system are not a must, but the better the technology, the better the great visuals and soundtracks of series like Boardwalk Empire, Daredevil, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead or Sherlock will come across. You should also provide plenty of comfortable seating.

Depending on how much time you have in advance, you can set the mood with inexpensive decorations and special accessories. There are plenty of merchandising items available, such as the map of Westeros from Game of Thrones or the Targaryen banner. There are inexpensive party table sets with zombie motifs for Walking Dead evenings and many party products from the action hero universe of Marvel and DC.

Always Goes Down Well at a Series Night:

• Large screen
• A good sound system
• Comfortable seating

6. How to Make Series Night an Iconic Event

What is the biggest difference between a series and a film? Quite clearly: series consist of several episodes that act in their own cosmos. Some series have a continuous plot, others are so-called episodic series with a self-contained plot per episode. Since you are no longer dependent on the TV programme and can watch the series of your choice at any time of day, one of the greatest emotional experiences of the joint series event is no longer a matter of course: the anticipation and eager anticipation of the next episode. A fixed date every week or every fortnight is therefore incredibly important so that your series night takes on cult character. For example, every Monday we watch the new episodes of the American cult series Game of Thrones – The Song of Ice and Fire with friends on SKY*.

A good friend of ours watches Tatort together with her best friends every Sunday at 8:15 pm on ARD. And they celebrate their crime Sunday with a joint dinner, which takes place every week in turn at the home of one of the Tatort watchers. Their Tatort cult evening has now been going on for three years – which is certainly also due to the fact that the fixed date provides a rhythm and that humans, as creatures of habit, love fixed structures in everyday life.

Tip: A fixed series date for your cult eveningprovides for anticipation and euphoria and regularly enriches your everyday life with a special evening.

Rituals are the be-all and end-all of a series night

Cult series night with Twin Peaks © Paramount Pictures

How do you manage to turn an ordinary series night into a cult? The big secret to success is: introduce rituals. The best rituals are those that are directly related to the series.

Eating and drinking as a ritual

Watching Twin Peaks, donut, cherry pie and coffee orgies make sense, but on Walking Dead, serving up a few canned goods like peanut cans and cracker packets is a far better fit.

Matching games for series night

You are not only series fans, but also like to play board games? If you’re already providing iconic snacks and drinks, why not combine the enjoyment of them with an iconic game! Tyrion Lannister, the intelligent gnome from Game of Thrones, for example, is known for his love of wine and his witty sayings. You could toast each other every time Tyrion cracks a joke or takes a sip of wine – whether you drink wine or not.

Game of guesses and predictions as a ritual

Even before the series begins, there are many opportunities for playful rituals. If you are watching a series together for the first time, it is a good idea to take turns making predictions about what will happen in this episode. It’s best to keep track of all the predictions and evaluate who is ahead and the winner after the last episode. Maybe think about a trophy for the winner to keep until the winner at the end of the next season? If one or more of you already know the episode, they can also host a guessing game or come up with some quiz questions. There is never a Monday evening before the start of a new episode of Game of Thrones when we don’t puzzle together about what will happen and give hints about possible plot highlights of our favourite characters.

Theme evening with cult guarantee

You are a big fan of theme nights or just a real series nerd? With the right decorations, you can create an unbeatable atmosphere. Your evening will be even more unusual if you dress up with accessories or even costumes to match the series. The more of your friends join in, the more unique such an evening will be and it will probably already be a real cult after the first episode.

7. More Fun With Reaction Videos Attention! Spoiler Warning

On Youtube, so-called Reaction Videos are all the rage. The most famous compilation featuring reactions of shocked viewers of the top series Game of Thrones to the so-called Red Wedding has been viewed over 12 million times on Youtube within 3 years. The hit series is based on the book by author George R. R. Martin and is notorious for having viewer favourites and heroes such as – Watch out spoilers! – Ned, Robb and Catelyn Stark die surprising deaths and giving the story completely unexpected twists.

It’s fun to watch the shocked or even thrilled reactions of complete strangers, because you can put yourself in their shoes so well and empathise yourself again with what it was like when you first saw the death or miraculous rescue of a series hero.

But it’s even more fun to capture your friends’ reactions on film with your smartphone or camcorder! Before the next season starts, you can enjoy your own shock videos next year at the latest. Such videos are also great memories of your cult evenings and capture for eternity the unique first reaction to series highlights.

And now have fun with your cult series night! At Abenteuer Freundschaft there are many more ideas for indoor activities to discover. In general, on our portal for leisure ideas, you will find many tips for activities with friends, with children and with your partner.

If you don’t want to miss any more tips and ideas from Abenteuer Freundschaft, just like us on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter! 😉

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